Cost was the main concern among Iola Council members with a proposed drop-off recycling program presented Monday. The evening’s discussion was the second of its kind since the Council has decided to offer a recycling program in some form to the community. Council members agree the need is there, but they are not willing to raise utility fees if necessary to accommodate a program.
The Council initially discussed offering curbside pickup and constructing a recycling facility at the Jan. 22 meeting but balked at the projected investment of $585,000.
Tasked to research other alternatives, City Administrator Matt Rehder presented a new drop-off recycling proposal Monday.
The proposed program consists of four drop-off recycling containers for plastics, cardboard, glass, and aluminum. The containers would be placed within city limits at a singular “to-be-determined” location. The total cost of such a program would be approximately $141,100 annually, with an initial start-up cost of $273,000.
Mayor Steve French took issue with the cost of the truck to transport the recyclables, as well as the need to create a new full-time position. “We need to save where we can,” he said. He suggested the council and city administration consider utilizing a private entity to pick up the items to eliminate the cost of a new truck and driver. “If we can drive the cost down, I can accept it,” he added.
The estimated cost of a roll-off container truck is $225,000 and the cost to employ a driver would be $45,000. The roll-off containers, by themselves, cost $48,000. Eliminating the need for the truck and new position would dramatically decrease the proposal’s initial start-up cost, as well as the recurring annual fees.
Recycling Committee member Dan Davis addressed the council and noted that other counties bring refuse to the Allen County landfill. “If those trucks go back empty, could we maybe work with them?” he asked.
Council member Joelle Shallah reiterated her stance on the recycling matter. “It should be a county-led initiative and the City of Iola can participate with them,” she said. “We can make the initial investment on the roll-off containers, but we need to find someone to contract with to haul off the recyclables.” She added she did not want to “add a penny” to the utility bills.
Council members agreed the city should offer some sort of recycling program, but they would like to do so at minimal cost. Mayor French noted that they will research options further before deciding.
IN OTHER NEWS, the council discussed a proposed ordinance concerning whether a dog is a nuisance, dangerous, or vicious. Following a discussion with the Municipal Court, Animal Control, and Iola Police Department, it was determined that a more definitive scale to make this determination was necessary.
The involved entities agree that the “Dog Bite Scale,” composed by Dr. Ian Dunbar, should be incorporated into the ordinance. The scale is widely accepted in law enforcement and court proceedings. The proposed ordinance will define not only the levels per the scale, it will also specity the steps necessary to ensure another incident of aggressiveness and biting does not occur. Mayor French questioned whether using the word “obnoxious” in the ordinance was too broad.
“How do you define obnoxious?” asked French. “I’m thinking there may be some bias there. Let’s say I’m an extreme dog-hater and I’m a law enforcement officer. I knock on a door and I’m trying to talk to a subject about how they’ve upset their neighbors and their little Yorkie is yapping — that’s an obnoxious dog. Is that fair to give them a citation for that?”
City Prosecutor Brandon Cameron and Municipal Court Judge Patricia Miklos Boyd answered questions about the ordinance. “The way it generally works, by the time a citation is issued, our code enforcement or law enforcement has met with that person several times in order to mitigate that situation,” said Cameron. “We want to be preventative versus drawing someone before the court.” Cameron compared the word “obnoxious” to the phrase “disorderly conduct” in the practice of law. “There’s ways that we can define it, but you don’t know it until you see it,” he said. “That’s an unfortunate fact of law.”
“When you’re talking about an obnoxious animal, you’re talking about something that’s going to fall into the nuisance category on the Dunbar scale,” said Judge Boyd. “There are obnoxious animals that are nuisances to people who live in the City of Iola. I think you leave that in there because you do want to have the ability to work with that kind of animal behavior.”
The proposed ordinance took roughly a year to draft and Judge Boyd noted that ordinances were pulled from comparable communities to reference. The council unanimously approved the ordinance, as written.
